Ex-President Sees Freud And You Take It From There

By KARIN LIPSON

Published: January 7, 2007

SO Harry Truman and a guy who has some emotional problems involving thongs (the underwear, not the flip-flops) both go to see Sigmund Freud, and.

Sounds like the start of a pretty bad joke. But it was, in fact, the middle of a really funny scene at a recent performance of ''Friday Night Face-Off,'' a weekly improvisational comedy show that has become a late-night hit among a young and demonstrably appreciative audience at Theater Three here.

With a cast that usually numbers seven or eight quick-witted performers, ''Face-Off'' will temporarily expand Friday for a show marking the start of its fifth season. Former cast members will join the current crew for what is likely to be an even more frenetic twist on the show's usual competitive improv format.

That format will be familiar to viewers of the longtime TV show ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' Teams vie for points as they create scenes on the spot, based on suggestions called out by the audience. A referee (Jeffrey Sanzel, executive artistic director of Theater Three, dressed for his role in black-and-white referee stripes) assigns broad categories, switches gears on the cast -- ever try doing a scene backward? -- and awards the points.

It may be a touch arbitrary, but who could blame Mr. Sanzel for awarding a point recently to the team that managed -- imaginatively, if perhaps anachronistically -- to bring Harry Truman to Dr. Freud, who was also treating the thong guy. Thongs may be inherently funny; the 33rd president of the United States is not usually a subject of much hilarity, though Harry was boffo that night.

A hip-hop segment, ''Beastie Rap,'' in which team members completed each other's lyrics (''her name was Carol'' was rhymed with ''barrel,'' ''peril'' and even ''Will Ferrell'') also went over big with a college and high-school crowd that has embraced ''Friday Night Face-Off'' as a way to start the weekend.

''I've come many, many times,'' said Vincent Giarraputo, 17, a high school senior from Stony Brook who stood among dozens of youthful fans outside Theater Three before the show, waiting to head downstairs to its second-stage Ronald F. Peierls Theater. ''It's different every week, and you bust a gut laughing.''

The current crowds are a far cry from the 35 or 40 people who turned out for the very first ''Friday Night Face-Off,'' said Eric Robinson, 26, who originated the show with Jay Painter, 30, while both were performing in Theater Three productions at area schools.

Driving together from school to school, the two actors, who had done improv in the past, found themselves ''doing mini-scenes in the car,'' Mr. Robinson recalled. Soon they got the idea for an improv company at Theater Three's second-stage space, where ''Friday Night Face-Off'' kicked off in February 2003.

While they are no longer regulars, both will take part in what is billed as the ''Fifth Anniversary Show,'' which, given ''Face-Off's'' 2003 debut, is really a ''beginning of the fifth season'' celebration, Mr. Robinson agreed. ''Next year we're planning on having our 10th anniversary show,'' he quipped.

The ''Friday Night Face-Off Fifth Anniversary Show'' will be performed Friday at 10:30 p.m. on the main stage at Theater Three, 412 Main Street, Port Jefferson; www.theaterthree.com. Tickets are $12; call (631) 928-9100, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Tickets for regular performances in the second-stage Ronald F. Peierls Theater ($12; cash only) are available the day of the show only.

Photo: LAUGHING IT UP -- Improvisation rules every Friday night at Theater Three in Port Jefferson, where teams compete. (Photo by Maxine Hicks for The New York Times)